


The Absurdity of a Name

by VespidaeQueen



Category: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Gen, Identity, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 19:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1953978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VespidaeQueen/pseuds/VespidaeQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is not an unusual scenario, if he is to be perfectly honest. It’s one he’s become accustomed since the first time Stroud had dropped the boy off at Vigil’s Keep - Sigrun pestering Carver, Carver being a pain right back, the two of them never quite shutting up until the Commander snapped them to attention.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Absurdity of a Name

**Author's Note:**

> Set immediately post-Finding Nathaniel in Act 3 of Dragon Age 2, with the idea that Sigrun was also hanging out in the Deep Roads as part of the expedition.
> 
> As a note, I haven't played Awakening in several years, so my grasp on Sigrun and Nathaniel's voices is probably not quite right.
> 
> This story hints slightly at a relationship between Sigrun and Carver, but it can be read as simply friendship.

They find Sigrun on their way back, perched on top of the corpse of an ogre. There’s blood splattered across her face, and her pigtails are nearly falling out.

“About time you two showed up,” she says as they approach. She pats the ogre’s head, in which one of her axes is still embedded. “Good thing I found a comfy seat to wait.”

“Nice to see that coming to back us up wasn’t on your list of things to do today.” The words might be harsh, but Carver’s tone is not. Sigrun grins at him, then pulls her axe from the ogre’s brain and hops down.

“Nah, I figured you two boys would do _just fine_ on your own. See? I trust you that much.” She taps his metal breastplate as she nears him, then she looks past him to Nathaniel. “So, Nate, you find what we came down here for? Cause the Commander’s not going to like it if we come back empty handed.”

“Then the Commander’s got nothing to worry about.” There is a hint of a smile on his face. “If you’re done killing ogres, we’re all set to head out.”

Sigrun’s still got her hand splayed on Carver’s breastplate, though her focus seems to be all on Nathaniel. “Oh, I’m _always_ up for more ogre killing, but it seems we’ve cleaned the place out.”

“If you’d bothered to catch up with us, you’d have had the chance to help me kill at least three more.”

Sigrun rolls her eyes, and there’s the ping of metal hitting metal as she raps on his breastplate again. “Oh, _come on_. There’s no way you took out three ogres by yourself, Hack ‘n slash. Nate, you helped him, didn’t you? Come one, tell the truth.”

“I can’t say that I helped him, though I believe he only fought two out of the three.”

For a moment, it looks like that will appease her, but then Sigrun’s eyes narrow. “You said that like he did have help.”

“No, he didn’t.” There’s irritation in Carver’s voice. “He didn’t say that at all.”

Sigrun pokes him. “You’re lying.”

“And you’re wasting time. Come on, we’ve got a long walk.” Carver starts to walk, heading towards the path that will lead them to the surface. Perhaps he thinks that, this time, walking off will be enough to dissuade further questions.

As always, it isn’t.

“You’re going to _have_ to tell me. No secrets between wardens, right?”

Even Nathaniel has to give a small laugh at that, because it’s the most ridiculous reason he’s heard. “If that is what you believe about the wardens, Sigrun, then you clearly haven’t been paying attention these past seven years.”

She throws a glare at him over her shoulder as they both keep up with Carver’s pace. “Look, Nate, I’m attempting to weasel information out of Carver here, so don’t make this harder for me.”

“Have you considered there’s no information to get?” Again, the dry, irritated tone of voice. A Carver staple, really, as Nathaniel has come to know over the past few years. The Commander had said that he and Nathaniel would make a great team as two equally brooding humans, and Nathaniel isn’t sure he likes the comparison.

“ _Nope!_ ”

This is not an unusual scenario, if he is to be perfectly honest. It’s one he’s become accustomed since the first time Stroud had dropped the boy off at Vigil’s Keep - Sigrun pestering Carver, Carver being a pain right back, the two of them never quite shutting up until the Commander snapped them to attention.

Ahead of him, Carver lets out a heavy sigh. “If I tell you, will you shut up about it?”

“Of _course_ ,” Sigrun says, in the tone of voice that says _why did you ask a question with such an obvious answer?_

There’s a beat, and then Carver speaks. “It was my sister, okay? We ran into my sister and she killed a few darkspawn with us. Happy now?”

Sigrun skips forward a few steps, until she’s walking level with him. “Wait, your sister? The one you never talk about except when you get really pissed off?”

“Yes. _That_ sister.”

She glances back to Nathaniel again. “Champion of Kirkwall, apparently,” he says, and watches Carver’s shoulders tense.

Sigrun’s mouth makes a little _oh_ of surprise. “ _Sooooo_ , what was she doing in the Deep Roads? Nothing like a little family reunion in between darkspawn fighting, right?”

“Looking for me,” Nathaniel says when Carver doesn’t answer. “Sounds like Delilah found someone to come find me when I didn’t come back.”

“Aw, that’s sweet.” She means it, too, he knows that. Still, there’s a wistfulness in her voice - Sigrun doesn’t have anyone waiting for her on the surface. No one of the non-warden variety, at least. “Do you think she’ll throw a party when we get back?”

He lets out a small breath of amusement. “Certainly,” he says dryly, but the abrupt shift from talking of one sister to another seems to have worked. Carver’s shoulders relax, and his gait evens out.

“You know what _I’m_ missing most about the surface right now?” she asks as the continue up the path that will - eventually - lead them out of the Deep Roads.

Carver snorts. “A dwarf missing the _surface? Incredible._ ”

“Shut it. I can miss the surface. Sure, it doesn’t have such incredible things as _darkspawn_ and _creepy lyrium_ , but it’s got it’s perks. Coffee, for one.” She kicks a broken bit of masonry out from in front of her as she walks. “Think the Commander will let us have some from her private store when we get back?”

“Don’t count on it.”

 

*

 

They walk until Nathaniel determines that they’ve gone far enough, and then they pitch camp. By now, they’re all used to this - finding a suitably defensible place, checking to make sure there are no darkspawn near to disrupt them the instant that they’ve gotten off their feet, making a fire and breaking out the provisions for the night. They’ve got severals days worth of walking left before they’ll make it to the surface, and at least one more day before they hit the cache of supplies they’d left hidden for use on the return journey.

Nathaniel takes first watch, and Carver relieves him several very quiet hours later. It’s easier to sleep now that they’ve cleared the tunnels; there’s no chattering voices, no call in his blood as he falls asleep.

It is the most restful sleep he’s had on this entire expedition.

He’s woken by the sound of voices sometime later. Familiar voices, and he quickly realizes that his two companions are awake. That they speak quietly suggests that they hadn’t intended to wake him, and that it is not yet time to break camp.

“It’s not that I hate her,” he hears Carver say, and while the words are near whispered, he can still make them out. “She’s my _sister_. The only one I have left. It’s just…”

“You two don’t always get along, right? I’ve gotten that, from the very little you’ve said about her.”

He hears the pop of the fire as Carver adds more wood. “No, we don’t. There's no place for me, when she's around. When she’s there, everything is about her, whether that’s what she intends or not. That she’s made herself Champion of Kirkwall doesn’t surprise me one _bloody_ bit.” There’s more popping and hissing, and Nathaniel thinks that Carver’s probably added the next bit of kindling a bit too harshly.

“So what, though? I mean, that she’s this _champion_? Is it _that_ important?”

There’s a laugh. “She’s a bloody _champion._ Of course that’s important.”

“I meant to you.”

Silence again, long, broken only by the sound of the fire.

“No,” he says. There’s an almost wondering quality to his voice. “I guess it isn’t.”

“See, there you have it. So _what_ if you’re sister’s a champion? You’re a warden, and a pretty fine one, if I do say so myself.”

“It’s just...hard. Seeing her.” There’s the creak of leather as someone shifts how they’re sitting. “You know, when I was... _following_ her, it’s like my name wasn’t even my own.”

“What, her name’s ‘ _Carver_ ’ too?”

“Not that. I meant my last name.”

There’s a mock gasp. “You have a _last_ name? _No_. I thought you were one of those rare humans who got away without a family name. I guess it’s down to just me, Velanna, and Oghren for _‘team no last name_.’”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

“Don’t you always. Now go on, continue brooding. I’m enthralled.”

“I’m not brooding. I’m -”

“I was joking.”

Again, there’s silence. Nathaniel is finally starting to drift back to sleep when Carver speaks again.

“I never got to be _Carver Hawke_ ,” he says finally. “I was the second Hawke. The _baby_ Hawke. Hawke’s brother. My sister was Hawke, and I was...well, I wasn’t _her._ ”

“Hawke.” Sigrun says the name like she’s tasting it. Trying it out. “ _Hawke_. Hawke. Haaaaawke.”

“Can we _please_ not turn this into a thing?”

“No, that’s not it. _Hawke._ ” She says the name again, then she makes a tiny _tsk_ with her tongue. “Nope. Doesn’t work.”

“ _Thanks_.”

“Shut it and let me talk. I get it. Kind of. I know what it’s like to have no family name. But...you’re Carver.”

“I know. Thank you for the reminder.”

“What I mean is, you’re _Carver_. You’re you, you don’t need to be _Hawke_. Besides,” and there’s the shifting sound of someone moving again, “the name Hawke doesn’t mean _shit_ in the wardens. The name Carver does.”

“Are you saying my name means shit?”

“It _could._ ”

Carver laughs then. “You sure have a way of making me feel better,” he says. He does sound better. Less bitter. Happier.

“I like to try.”

Again, someone shifts. When Carver speaks again, his voice is slightly muffled.

“Thank you,” he says, and that’s a rare thing to hear.

“You’re welcome,” Sigrun says, and she sounds somewhat breathless. “Now stop squeezing me so tight, you giant. You’re going to crush my ribs.”

“Sorry.” Another rarity.

“Next time, just don’t hug me quite as hard, and you’ll do fine.”

“...next time?”

“Hugging is an essential part of heart-to-hearts,” Sigrun says. “Now go get some sleep, I’ll take over for the rest of the night.”

There’s a moment of hesitation there, then the sound of Carver rising from his seat by the fire.

“Wake me if something happens.”

“Of course. Now shoo. Get some rest.”

With the talking finally done, Nathaniel himself is able to follow Sigrun’s good advice, and by the time Carver’s done rustling around the camp, he’s already back to sleep.

 

***

 

In the morning, they break camp. If there’s something different between Sigrun and Carver, no one mentions it. Nathaniel doesn’t say a word about what he overheard the night before, and they’re obviously not going to tell him, so everything goes unspoken.

There’s nothing different though, in knowing who Carver’s sister is. Champion or not, it changes nothing about Carver. That he’s Carver _Hawke_ changes nothing. Sigrun’s right - he’s Carver. Pain in the ass, abrasive, incredibly competent, trusted Grey Warden _Carver_.

There’s no shadow of his sister hovering over him here.

Together, the three of them continue on their way back to the surface.


End file.
